|Publication number||US7199726 B2|
|Application number||US 10/878,951|
|Publication date||3 Apr 2007|
|Filing date||28 Jun 2004|
|Priority date||30 Dec 2000|
|Also published as||CA2434475A1, CA2434475C, CN1496484A, CN100383550C, EP1461637A2, US6441752, US6756918, US20020183077, US20040246146, WO2003060544A2, WO2003060544A3|
|Publication number||10878951, 878951, US 7199726 B2, US 7199726B2, US-B2-7199726, US7199726 B2, US7199726B2|
|Original Assignee||Mundi Fomukong|
|Export Citation||BiBTeX, EndNote, RefMan|
|Patent Citations (21), Referenced by (9), Classifications (17), Legal Events (4)|
|External Links: USPTO, USPTO Assignment, Espacenet|
This application is a continuation application of U.S. application Ser. No. 10/199,829, filed Jul. 19, 2002 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,756,918, which in turn is a continuation-in-part of U.S. application Ser. No. 09/753,178, filed Dec. 30, 2000 issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,441,752. The disclosure is incorporated herein by reference.
This invention relates to telecommunication services and systems, specifically such services and systems that convey the location of a mobile unit.
The wireless industry is currently gearing towards the provision of a wide range of location based services to the general public. Such services will include utilizing the location of a subscriber's portable remote unit to channel a wide range of location-based services to the subscriber. For such a service to be successful, the remote unit must be able to obtain and relay its location information to other communication targets of the network requesting such information.
In relevant prior art such as U.S. Pat. No. 5,689,245, Noreen and al, the location of a remote unit is employed to execute location specific instructions transmitted to the remote unit.
In Bird, U.S. Pat. No. 5,418.537, a missing vehicle is located through the use of a GPS receiver mounted on the vehicle. When the vehicle is missing, a paging request is broadcast by the vehicle location center. Upon receiving the broadcasted message, the vehicle resolves and conveys its location to the service center.
In Buss, U.S. Pat. No. 5,539,395, a remote unit is presented whereby the unit selects and displays messages matching the location of the remote unit. The network provides the unit with messages having a location signal. If the location signal picked up by the unit is within the unit's current location, the message is displayed, otherwise it is kept in memory for display at the appropriate location.
In Chapman, U.S. Pat. No. 5,504,491, a global status and positioning reporting system is described. A remote unit obtains its global location and updates the network with status information and location information as required. Such status information may include an emergency condition or relevant condition of the remote unit required by the network.
In Fomukong and al, U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,159 a location reporting satellite paging system with optional blocking of location reporting is disclosed. In that invention, a remote mobile unit obtains its location information and provides that information via the network to other network units requesting the information. The provision of such location information is done based on authorization information provided and routinely updated by the remote unit.
In all of the above-disclosed inventions, the location of the remote unit is utilized by the system. The deployment of location services could be quite beneficial to the general public if safely implemented. In today's market, such mobile units are usually small, compact and lightweight. These devices could easily be concealed to reveal the location of a mobile user without the user knowing or authorizing the disclosure of their location. Most wireless consumers might not want their location disclosed to the network or general public and the thought of being tracked by a clandestine unit concealed in an object such as a car or luggage to reveal the location of an individual would be unacceptable by the general public. The risk of abuse clearly exists and must be handled appropriately by wireless vendors. In U.S. Pat. No. 5,918,159 that provides authorization for location reporting, it would be almost impossible for the network to prevent a concealed location-reporting unit to provide the location of an individual being tracked, given an abuse is occurring. A need therefore exists for location reporting devices in a specific geographic region to reveal their location upon request. In situations where a user is being tracked, the network would be able to determine which units are tracking the user by querying for the location of remote units within a specified radius of the user or tracked unit. The techniques required to provide the above result are described in the invention.
Whenever a mobile user is stranded and requires immediate help, another mobile party may exist not too far from the location of the user. The mobile user may not be aware of the presence of the other mobile party at that geographic location. By paging for the location of portable remote units (PRUs) within the stranded area, a distressed subscriber may immediately sought help at that location. If the prescribed boundary specified by the mobile user exceeds pre-specified limits, the network may split that geographic area as described hereinafter. Pages may then be sent to specific areas in order to obtain the location of portable remote units in that geographic area. The location of any mobile location-reporting unit in a geographic area that is closest to the user will be revealed to the user.
Lots of other uses exist for such a service to be lucrative to a service provider. A wireless subscriber may opt to participate in the program and users of the system may be charged a fee each time the location of another PRU at a requested geographic boundary is provided to the user. Also, users in possession of portable remote units may be charged whenever they invoke the tracking mode in their PRU. To improve subscriber enrollment in the program, subscribers may also received benefits each time their location is provided to a distressed individual. Subscribers not requiring their locations disclosed at any time may block such information at the network. In situations where a PRU user is being tracked by another, the network will only reveal the location of the tracking unit only after both units have traveled a certain distance over a pre-specified period of time with the tracking unit maintaining proximity to the source during that period. Such distances and elapse times could be set as a standard by the industry to clearly define tracking.
The system presented requires mobile devices to communicate their location information to the network. As the number of location enabled devices within the network increases, certain components of the system may require the location of certain mobile devices reported in a manner that would prevent the component from being overloaded. Therefore, it is required that, a method and apparatus be provided to facilitate the provision of remote unit location information to the network to prevent network overloading and also minimize power consumption of the mobile device.
From the above there is clearly a need for a system whereby a remote unit should be able to request for the location of other remote units within a specific geographic area. The components of such a system are described hereinafter.
It is an objective of the present invention to provide a mobile telecommunication system, method and technique that could facilitate the secure provision of location information pertaining to one or more mobile communication targets that are tracking another.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a mobile telecommunication system whereby a communication source residing in a geographic location may poll for the location of communication targets that are present in another geographic area.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a technique to report the location of communication units within a pre-specified boundary.
It is an objective of the current invention to provide adequate technology that would facilitate the disclosure of location information of communication units that are present in a wider than normal geographic area.
It is an objective of this invention to provide a remote unit that could provide location information and geographic boundary information where a search could be initiated for the presence of one or more location reporting communication targets.
It is another objective of the invention to provide a portable mobile device that provides its location to the network only when the device has covered a minimum distance from a reference location prescribed by the network.
Other objects and advantages of the system will appear hereafter.
The aforementioned objectives are achieved by an improved telecommunication system that can provide location information pertaining to other communication targets that are present within a pre-specified geographic boundary.
In the system, a communication source may query for the location of communication targets at a specified geographic boundary. The communication source may also enter into a mode to determine if another communication unit is tracking it. Communication sources and targets of the system should be able to obtain their location using any relevant location determination technique. This information is conveyed securely across the network based on system and subscriber requirements. When a communication source requires the location information of communication targets in a specific geographic area, the source obtains its location and may determine if the geographic boundary of the required targets is within its querying radii. Although the design could also be such that the network handles all queries, a communication source may poll directly for the location information of targets in a specified geographic boundary. This could happen if the communication targets are within the source's querying radii; preventing unnecessary overloading of shared network resources. For more complex and distant queries, the source may simply provide its location and geographic boundary information where targets should be interrogated for location disclosure. The network utilizes its resources and determines where and how a search for relevant communication targets should be initiated.
Once the search for possible communication targets within the specified geographic boundary is completed, the network provides the communication source with information pertaining to communication target(s) closest to the source and in the geographic region specified by the source.
An overview of the present system in accordance with the invention is depicted in
Other mobile portable users exist in the system and are scattered as shown in
A general internal circuitry of a portable remote unit or PRU,
As stated in one of the objectives of the invention and illustrated in
As previously indicated, a PRU may invoke this method directly to determine if other units residing in its immediate geographic area have been tracking it. This would help reduce network overload and, at the end of the tracking period, a status signal may simply be forwarded to the network. In circumstances where a tracked PRU cannot perform this operation, a ground control unit may be employed to carry out the tracking operation for the PRU and report any findings to the PRU. Maintaining a list of all tracking units at the first tracking interval is efficient as it reduces storage space and processing time. It is also possible to maintain a list of all units that are within a pre-defined geographic boundary of the tracked unit throughout the entire tracking process. At the end of the process, the list could be used to determine which units reported their location over a pre-specified distance traveled by the tracked unit
For a unit to report a global location within a specified geographic boundary, the unit must be able to obtain geographic boundary information and further determine if its location is within the prescribed boundary. There are several techniques well known in the art that a remote unit may employ to resolve its geographic location or assist the network in resolving its location. Once the PRU obtains its location from whatever technique, that information is utilized to perform the functions in accordance with the invention. Apart from determining if a remote unit is being tracked, other uses exist for a remote unit to disclose its location at a particular geographic location. For instance a distress subscriber at a specific global location may simply want to know if there mobile users in the immediate geographic area. Furthermore, a subscriber might want to know if there are any individuals at their home, office or a specified geographic location. By specifying the required location and further information such as radii information, the network may provide a portable remote unit with the location of portable remote targets that are closest to the PRU and in the geographic area specified by the PRU.
For a simple search where the geographic region does not exceed a pre-specified limit, a page may simply be sent to the required region for all units in the region to disclose their location. As it would be inefficient to page for portable remote units in wider geographic boundaries to reveal their location, searches in these areas could be managed differently by the network. In this situation, the network may simply split the wider area into sub regions and recursively query for the location of PRUs, starting in sub-regions that are close to the origin before extending to geographic regions that are further away.
To disclose a global location within a prescribed geographic boundary, a PRU at the geographic location picking up the request must determine if it is within that boundary before providing its location to the network.
As shown in
Considering that mobile unit M1 is initiating a search for possible portable remote units in its immediate area, a relevant ground control station will send three pages. The first page will cover cell C1 or grid G1. As no units are available in the area a second page will be sent to cover cell C2 or grid G2. Examining
Whenever a portable remote unit receives a page to disclose its location within a specified geographic boundary, the PRU obtains its location and attempts to determine if it is within that boundary. As mentioned before, the PRU may employ any relevant location determination technique well known in the art to obtain its geographic location. If the boundary information specified by the network contains a well-defined set of points—latitude and longitude for that region—defining the geographic region, the PRU will simply establish if its location is within the geographic boundary and provide its location to the network based on that. The points may simply define the minimum and maximum latitude and longitude values within which a PRU should respond. Such a procedure would be stored in the memory means, FIG. 2,26 of the PRU and invoked by the control unit FIG. 2,22 of the PRU as required. If the network simply provides the origin—latitude and longitude—and radii information of the region where a search is to be performed, the PRU will utilize these values to establish if it is within the area defined by the network as shown in
It could be made mandatory that all PRUs reveal their location once they receive a request to establish tracking. A PRU may not respond to any tracking establishing routines if it is at a fixed location. Tracking is only possible when the tracking and tracked unit are in motion. If a network's request is just to establish if a PRU is within a geographic location, the PRU's response could be based solely on the requirements of the subscriber—whether such action is authorized or not. A PRU may choose to instruct the network to relay certain information to mobile units in a specific geographic region. That information would then be appended to the geographic boundary information and beamed in the specified geographic region. The target PRUs would determine if they are in the specified boundary before alerting a subscriber as to the content of the message. In circumstances where a subscriber in possession of the PRU is in motion and a request is received for the location of the PRU if within a specified region, the PRU may provide this information and also provide additional information such as its velocity to the network. This might help a party seeking help to establish if they would be able to catch up with another subscriber in the region which help was sought. Also, a party requesting for the location of remote units in a geographic boundary may also forward maximum velocity information. If a PRU is in the region and establishes its velocity is above what is specified, no response is sent to the network. A PRU may calculate its velocity by using the equation, velocity=distance/time. At time intervals T1 and T2, a PRU may obtain its location, Y1 and Y2 and calculate the distance between these two points, as previously disclosed. The velocity is given by (distance between Y2 and Y1.)/(Time at Y2−Time at Y1. Such information could then be provided to the network. In situations where a PRU cannot perform any of the tasks described herein, the network may obtain its location information and the required functions performed at the network and forwarded to the appropriate communication target on completion.
In the invention, portable mobile remote units would find the need to routinely update the network with their location information over time. As lots of PRUs exist in the network this could prove difficult for the network to manage. Considering that most PRUs usually travel a small distance over time, it would prove insignificant if their location is continuously provided to the network A solution will be to instruct the PRU to provide its location to the network only if the location has changed by a constant, such constant defined from a reference position provided by the network. In this scenario, an initial reference location and radii is provided to the PRU, from within which the PRU should not disclose its location to the network. So long as the PRU is within the undisclosed geographic boundary, its location will never to provided to the network. Once the PRU is out of this boundary a new undisclosed geographic boundary is provided to the PRU. With this technique the network will not be burdened with managing insignificant changes in the location of the mobile device, for a time. If for instance, the undisclosed radii is set to five miles, the reference coordinate would always be updated each time the PRU travels in excess of five miles off its original reference position. The network or the user may control the undisclosed radii value to ensure reasonable disclosure of location information to the network. The network may, of course, override this feature at anytime to obtain the location of a PRU at any time.
The invention also teaches a way to determine if a mobile device is tracking another by examining the location information of the tracking and tracked device over a period of time. Another possibility could be to examine the characteristics of signals emitted from tracking devices that are within close proximity of the tracked device during the tracking period. Such characteristic may include monitoring signal strength and other relevant information—such as location—provided by a tracking device to establish if the device is continuously present within proximity of the tracked unit over time. Also, tracking devices that are within proximity of the tracked device could be instructed to provide their information at predetermined time intervals over the tracking period. The intervals and tracking period could be set and forwarded to the relevant geographic location by the network. The devices picking up that information will periodically update the required information to a control unit at the network and the end of the tracking period the control unit will process the information and determine if a mobile unit is being tracked within the system.
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|U.S. Classification||340/988, 340/989, 340/992|
|International Classification||G08G1/123, B60R25/10, H04Q7/34, H04Q7/36, G01S5/00, G08C17/00, G01S19/03|
|Cooperative Classification||G08G1/207, B60W2550/402, B60R25/33, B60R25/102|
|European Classification||G08G1/20C, B60R25/102, B60R25/33|
|27 Apr 2010||FPAY||Fee payment|
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|14 Nov 2014||REMI||Maintenance fee reminder mailed|
|26 Nov 2014||FPAY||Fee payment|
Year of fee payment: 8
|26 Nov 2014||SULP||Surcharge for late payment|
Year of fee payment: 7